MINERS’ INSURANCE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4778, 19 November 1924, Page 3

MINERS’ INSURANCE.

SICKNESS AND ACCIDENT FUND. SCHEME AT WAIKINO. Following on the offer of the Waihi Gold Mining Company to subsidise a sickness and accident fund on a £ foi £ basis up to £l5OO a year, provided the members of the Ohinemuri Mines and Batteries’ Union felt disposed to establish the scheme, a ballot was taken in February last (states the Waihi “Telegraph”). Briefly, the company’s proposals were that the fund be created' and maintained by a weekly payment of one shilling, the amount to be deducted from the fortnightly pay of each employee, the company to provide an equal sum up to £l5OO yearly. The benefits to the men included a weekly payment in the case of sickness of £2 10s, and in the event of accident while at their work half this amount, {(respective of the amount paid under the Workers’ Compensation for Accident Act, and £2 10s in the case of accident when not at work. A maternity bonus of £5 was also provided for. While the ballot at Waihi showed a majority in favour of the proposal, the percentage was not sufficiently high in the opinion of the management to justify the introduction of the scheme, whicn would have enforced quite a substantial number of workers to contribute who had, through the medium of the ballot box, opposed the scheme. The members of the union at’ Waikino, on the other hand, were almost unanimously in favour of the proposal. and a few months later the Waikino men decided to take a vote on the question amongst themselves, and distinct from Waihi. At a meeting .the company’s offer was further considered, and the voting was even a more unanimous declaration in favour of the adoption of the scheme. The decision .was immediately followed by the appointment, of executive officers and a committee to manage and controlj the funds. For the company Messrs J. H. Banks and L. Murphy were appointed president and treasurer respectively, and for the ■employees Mr G. Bell was elected secretary to act on the committee with four other workers’ representatives. Since the scheme came into operation about eight weeks ago its progress has been most satisfactory. A representative of the paper, in the course of his visit to the Waihi company’s Waikino mill the other day, met the secretary and members of the committee. The enthusiasm of these men in favour of the scheifie was unbounded, and they assured him that the same sentiments prevailed amongst practically the of the company’s employees at Waikino. Mr J. H. Tippett, shop steward of the engineers’ union, said the scheme was the best thing ever put in operation in Waikino. “No worker on the joh misses a shilling a week, and the benefits to the men as a whole are solid. Indirectly,” he added, "the company is giving each employee a shilling a week.’’ Mr Bell, the secretary, said: “It is the best thing that has ever been offered us, and it is amazing how any sane man could turn such a generous offer down.” Referring to the funds and theit distribution, Mr Bell said that fortnightly payments from the men totalled £l6, which, with the company’s subsidy added, made i total of £32. Since the scheme had been put into operation, payments to date for sickness and accidents had amounted to £62, leaving a balance of about £lOO in hand.